The Immortal Mercenary
by Aquestra
Summary: Yajirobe let his festering fear overcome him and, after his first rash attack, no longer possessed the courage to deal the second slice of his sword. Will Gohan survive? Can anything stop Prince Vegeta from completing his quest to unite the dragon balls? Or will the simple swipe of a blade be the pivotal moment in history that changes absolutely everything?


**A Lost Tail**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ :(**

**Note 1: First AU/Divergence story, R&R if you can please :D**

**Note 2: To The Saiyan Ascension readers, I have not given up on it don't worry I just like drafting the entire saga before I write good copies. Chapter 19 should be up by Sunday :)**

**Happy Reading**

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"Someone's creeping around me." The giant armoured ape muttered aloud to himself as he turned his head from side to side searching for the invisible opponent. His tattered blue spandex and crumbling white chest plate glinted in the high sun. The Oozaru's bloodied, bad eye twitched with pain as he scanned the barren wasteland around him with his good eye. "Where are you?"

"Right here!" The mighty ape turned and looked down, with his one good, giant red eye, at the young demi-saiyan who suddenly exposed himself. The child looked fearless and determined, something that greatly displeased the mammoth ape. "Put my dad down right now!"

"Oh...oh no." The giant ape feigned through his disgusting snout that could easily devour the boy whole. "Please don't hurt me, I'll do what ever you say."

"Oh I'll put your dad down, I may do it a piece at a time, but I'll put him down." The powerful oozaru growled down at the boy, taunting him. It greatly pleased the transformed saiyan to see the boys frustration, and it was even more rewarding to watch the boy's face contort in utter horror and displeasure at the promise of his father's painful demise.

As the boy growled up at him, the sight made the giant ape laugh in pure pleasure at the torment he was causing. How these pathetic earthlings and half breeds had given him trouble, but not anymore. They would pay for their insolence, especially the pure blooded saiyan he held in his hand. The godly oozaru decided Kakarot deserved a long and utterly painful punishment for his insubordination. He would only allow the traitorous saiyan the gift of death once every bone in his body was crushed and every sane thought in head erased from the broiling pain he would wreak upon him. Instinctively the ape clenched down on the man he held in his right hand, the overwhelming instinct to just crush him then and there overflowing within. The ape couldn't help but wag his long furry tail at the prospect of it.

"Now what part would you like first?" He rumbled out in an evilly low voice.

"You hurt him and you're in big trouble!" The boy yelled at him in his pathetically high-pitched boyish voice. As if that could ever intimidate him.

"Well, well I guess this is it." The mighty beast drew back his left hand and pulled his victim's head back, while applying more pressure with the other around the man's bare chest. It took the warrior every ounce of his restraint not to just let his primitive state take over, and crush the man right then. But he wanted to draw this out, make both the boy and his father suffer for the nuisances they had been.

"You two should be proud, it's not often I'm forced to transform to win a battle." The oozaru saiyan rasped out, putting emphasis on the fact that he was indeed the winner. As much as he wanted to crush them both and rip the to shreds, he had to admit they had put up a formidable effort. Were they not such earthling brainwashed scum, they would have been excellent replacements for his late crew.

"You've proved yourselves worthy of the name saiyan." The ape admitted but continued to crush down on Kakarot, the spiky haired saiyan in his hand, mercilessly. The transform saiyan scoffed maliciously. "What a waste, it's a shame that your father and I couldn't see eye to eye."

The oozaru pushed on his victims head, and tightened his grip even further. The pain laced grunts and cries of the dying saiyan were music to his primate ears.

Suddenly his senses heightened and he could feel air moving swiftly behind him. The subtle hiss of energy flying through the air was clearly audible in his sensitive ears. The ape's good eye widened in realization, something was coming at him from behind. And quickly.

With no more than a second to spare the beast hoped into the air, allowing the warm disk of energy to pass directly underneath. He could feel the power grazing the underside of his enormous white boots. Upon his descent he observed the energy beam shoot out from right where he had been standing and collide right into the rocky plateau the demi-brat stood upon, slicing clean through the middle of it. Unfortunately it had done nothing more than shock the spawn of the elder saiyan he held, dealing him no physical harm.

A low snarl began to rumble in the oozaru's chest as rage swelled within him. The massive ape began to turn his body in the direction from which the razor sharp ki circle had been launched. He narrowed his eye as he began to hear the whimpering of the bald man from off in the distance, the sound of his cowardly voice causing his beastly growl to thunder even lower.

"Do you see these big ears?" The ape spat out hatefully looking over his shoulder at the short, bald man in the orange gi. "Well that's how I knew, I could hear a pin drop one mile from here, we mammoth apes are very sensitive creatures."

The oozaru took great pleasure hearing the boy join the man in horrified shaking. He then took the opportunity of their weakness to crush them even further and brought Kakarot, their supposed saviour, into the middle of both his balled fists. "Haha, since you two are trained in the arts, you should be able to appreciate my snowball technique."

"Oh gosh, Goku" The badly wined pathetically from out of his sight, obviously referring to his friend Kakarot. "I don't know what to do."

The mighty ape began grinding his hands together, crushing the man slowly, breaking apart every bone and joint in the process. He ground his hands hard, and an animalistic smirk flashed across his pointed snout. He could feel bones being crushed to dust in his hands, and could hear the beautiful, muffled screams of agony. This was the saiyan's penance for getting in his way.

"No, dad" He heard the long-haired half-breed mutter under his breath from below.

"STOP IT," The ridiculously garbed child suddenly yelled out with a newfound confidence so astounding, it made the oozaru stop the tedious grinding of the man within his grasp. "I SAID STOP IT!"

The ape scowled down at the spawn, who was passionately shaking his head from side to side screaming all the while. Finally after his cries of emotional bull shit finished filling the crisp air, the spawn confidently lowered himself into a squatted fighting stance. He quickly readied his arms for battle holding them defensively to his sides, strategically covering his exposed face. Inwardly, the ape had to give the boy credit, he had the spirit of a saiyan through and through. Unfortunately though the spawn wasn't fighting for their race, he was fighting for those lesser than he. He was fighting for the blasted earthlings.

The ape chuckled at the spawn's spirit, and how it would soon be smothered. The boy looked ridiculous in comparison to his own might, size and power. The oozaru continued to laugh at the sight of the pathetic child. "Hey kid, from up here you look like one of those toy karate dolls."

The ginormous ape began to move towards the spawn of Kakarot, with each step he created a foot shaped crater in the sand below. As he closed in on the boy, he brought his head down to the same level as the growling child. The mighty oozaru chuckled at the boy's feeble attempt at defence. "Hey kid, smell monkey feet. Crushing eh?"

He was only able to stare down at the spawn for a moment longer.

Then an inexplicable pain seared through his entire body. It was immobilizing. The ape was stuck in place, able to do nothing more than howl in agony for several moments. He heard the sound of something extremely large from behind him falling smashing into the ground below. That's when he knew where the pain was emanating from.

Someone had cut off his tail.

"NOOO" He growled full of rage as he tried to wheel around to catch the culprit. "SCOUNDREL!"

"Where ever you are you are going to pay dearly for this." The oozaru had completely whipped around to try to catch sight of his attacker. But he was quickly engulfed in uncontrollable primal instinct. He would soon lose his transformation, but he knew before that, he would certainly – at least for a second – lose himself to his insanely primitive instincts he had tried so hard to control. "You fools! You don't know what you've done!"

The ape roared in agony, and in a pure instinctual reaction to his pain un-tensed every muscle in his body, trying to find some relief. Unfortunately that meant he lost his grip on Kakarot, allowing the saiyan to plummet several stories to the hard ground below. He tossed back his head in pain and let out another giant roar. The ape's entire body quivered with hate and agony. The earth beneath his feet trembled at his power. And then, he slowly began to lose his transformation.

The giant ape, who was easily at least ten stories tall, first felt his body shrinking. His line of sight that easily pierced into the sky, clear of any of the rocky plateaus, soon was obscured by the rock monuments. Next he could feel his brown, wiry hair that had grown all over his body, begin to o recoil back into the follicles from which they came. And with that he knew his snout would come next, and as predicted it did. Once he had lost nearly half of his body mass, his snout began to painfully push itself back into his face and his one good eye blinked madly as it lost it's redness.

The Oozaru was no longer, in his place instead stood the proud, powerful saiyan, Prince Vegeta.

The prince of his race couldn't stop heaving, his short frame and spiky black hair shaking at his laboured breath. Anger pulsed through his every capillary. Whoever had cut off his tail, the saiyan's most prized appendage, would meet nothing but the universe's most gruesome death by his hands.

"That's what tails do?" His head snapped up and looked in the direction of the ignorant boy whose high pitched voice was most certainly the source of the idiotic statement. "What a horrible thing."

"You thought I was horrible with a tail huh?" The Prince hollered out, balling his hand in a threatening fist. "Well strap yourself in!"

Vegeta pounced of the ground at the boy on the plateau, closing the distance between them in mere seconds.

"Gohan get outta there!" He heard the baldy yell from off in the distance, but it was too late.

Vegeta, with an evil smirk, had already plunged his knee into the boy's feeble chest. The spawn tumbled backwards on the plateau, only coming to a halt on the very edge of it. Prince Vegeta proudly walked up and towered over the boy, who was clutching at his injured chest. And to Vegeta's great pleasure, the boy was trembling in pain.

"What's wrong? You seem scared." Vegeta drew his left elbow back and hurled his right fist into the brat's unprotected stomach. His onyx eye glinted with pleasure as the boy keeled over in pain, and he couldn't help but mock the pathetic halfling. "A brave saiyan like yourself shouldn't be scare. It's not becoming."

The boy fell to his knees in front of him and Vegeta raise his elbow in the air to deliver the final blow. "I guess those powers of yours are taking a nap... Pity."

Suddenly he could sense something approaching from behind, and the instant before the baldy headed one could attack his exposed back, he whirled around and hit the flying man square with a round-house kick. The man went flying through the air in the other direction. Vegeta watched as the human bounced from one rock formation to another, only finally coming to a halt far off in the distance.

"Ha! That bald head was bouncing around like a cue ball!"

The Prince reached down and grasped the boy at his white collar, and pulled him into the air. Bringing the boy face to face with himself.

"Well, well look Kakarot's son, the little super saiyan." He taunted evilly. "You should know better than to oppose Vegeta."

"I think you're ready to go to the dump with the rest of the trash." The boy squealed and squirmed in his hands as the Prince of all Saiyans began to walk over to the opposite ledge of the rock formation. "You're all used up."

Vegeta walked right to the edge, letting his toes hang over, and then with an effortless swing of his right arm he sent the boy hurtling down to the valley below. The valley where his pathetic father, Kakarot lay. The valley where they would both meet their doom.

"Gohan, it's dad." The phrase caught the Prince's attention as he was turning away. And he snapped back to face the two saiyan subordinates.

"Kakarot's awake again." He murmured to himself under his breath. Vegeta concluded that Had this saiyan not been a mutinous traitor to his race, he would have surely made a great addition to his battalion, and would have assisted greatly in the new uprising against the lizard overlord. Even so, his power and perseverance were astounding. "What and extraordinary fellow."

"Gohan please don't give up." Vegeta watched as the beat up orange panted sayian spat out to his brat of a son. The duo lay side by side on their backs, both to Vegeta's pleasure looking utterly defeated. The Prince smirked sinfully as he heard the amount of effort Kakarot had to put in to merely speak."My body is shredded I can't use it anymore so your going to have to fight on our behalf. He's gotta be hurting pretty bad too. We can't give in this is our only chance. Please, Gohan!"

"Dad I don't think I can do it. He's just too strong for me. I'm scared of him!" Prince Vegeta's smirk deepened, how he loved striking fear into the hearts of his enemies.

"I hate to say I told you so. But you really should have joined me Kakarot. Now it's too late, you had your chance." Vegeta hollered down from his roost on the peak of the rock formation. He laced his voice with hate and the promise of their demise. Prince Vegeta would make them tremble. "Now you, your son and the bald guy, you're out of here. And who ever cut my tail off will be joining you shortly in the next dimension."

"Son, don't be scared of him, you're a lot stronger than you think. Piccolo trained you very well. You have to have faith in him. You can win!" Kakarot continued groaning to his son. Vegeta scowled as he looked down at the two, how dare they not acknowledge his address? "Ah, it looks like Krillin maybe able to lend you a hand after all – excellent."

"I can't move, I don't think I can do it dad!" The small spawn in the purple gi wined.

"You have too there's no other way!" Vegeta smirked as he heard the disparity in Kakarot's voice. Then his smirk sunk into a sickening scowl as he watched the elder of the two reach out his hand, in a revolting display of un-saiyan like emotions, to try to reach his son. "Gohan this is it, try to remember what Piccolo did for you!"

"Ah!"

"I know you can do it Gohan." Kakarot said as he reached his hand out further to meet his son's. The spawn now reciprocated and they were closing the distance between them. The sight was pathetic. Vegeta had enough of this affectionate show, the weakness of it all making him nauseated. In one fluid motion the Prince hopped down from the cliff, allowing gravity to give him as much momentum as it could. Midway through his decent he bent his knee and aimed himself at Kakarot. A devious grin plastered itself on his face.

Prince Vegeta pointed knee ploughed into Kakarot's stomach with the force of a thousand wreaking balls. He felt the saiyan's body jerk up beneath him, and heard the subtle crushing of his already broken ribs. The Prince regarded the father and son's hands, the hands that were almost touching, but now never would. Vegeta crouched over the defeated warrior as he hissed, "Being a good fiend is like being a good photographer, you have to search for the right moment."

"Ahhh, no dad, NO!" The brat screeched out from beside them.

"GOHAN." A father, begging for his son's aid. Vegeta couldn't help but chuckle at how pathetic it all was.

"STOP IT!"

"Huh?" Vegeta's head snapped to the side and he pulled his knee out from Kakarot's sunken chest and brought himself to his feet. The harsh battle cry had emitted from the demi-spawn. The young one of saiyan descent was crouched with his elbows pulled into his sides, as if harnessing his energy. A viscous look of awesome anger was tattooed on the kid's face. Vegeta smirked, maybe he would reconsider keeping the kid around, the boy certainly had a saiyan spirit.

"You heard me, lets go!" The child wildly threatened back.

"Sure kid, why not?" A smile crept across the Prince's face as he shrugged indifferently. He flashed the boy a taunting look. "I'm game."

The brat suddenly crossed his wrists and furiously released and massive ki blast aimed right at the Saiyan Prince. Although the attack was head on, and easily detected, it was fast. Vegeta barely missed being obliterated by the yellow beam, only taking to the air at the very last second. A smirk snuggly presented itself on his face as he floated in midair looking down at the ki blast shooting out beneath him.

In his moment of triumph, the kid struck.

A wheeling beige shoe came in hurtling contact with his unsuspecting face, sending the prince hurtling through the sky from the unanticipated blow. His smug smirk was immediately replaced with a haunting scowl.

"Little punk." Vegeta thrashed out as the boy came racing after him from behind. The prince was ready this time. He feigned ignorance, allowing the kid to think he had the advantage. Just as the boy was upon him, Vegeta ducked his head down and used the turning momentum to do a full flip in the air. With his muscular leg extended, there was no chance the boy could avoid his attack in time. With the power of his downward momentum, Vegeta violently thrust the bottom of his white boot right into the underside of Gohan's clenched jaw.

The wicked Prince watched as the young kid fumbled through the air, and for a mere millisecond thought that he may have been the victor. But that thought was quickly exiled when the spawn regain he focus and shot himself back at Vegeta. The two warriors danced in midair, neither immediately besting the other. Vegeta's breath started to heave as he continued the block and reciprocate. The prince was admittedly getting tired, but Vegeta knew that if he could just outlast the brat's sudden spurt of energy, the boy would tire himself out. His young boy would just not have the endurance. So Vegeta continued to match the boy, until finally the kid's form grew sloppy.

Vegeta immediately noticed the boy drop his left arm a mere centimetre to low, and that's when he struck. The Prince drew his elbow back and fired a mighty fist square at the boys' face. A smirk crossed his face when he realized he had been correct, the spawn's arm was just a flinch too late from stopping the attack.

And Vegeta's gloved fist smothered Gohan's unprepared face. As the boy rebounded backwards a few feet, the mighty saiyan couldn't help but chuckle. "What an epic day. How exhilarating."

Immediately the two were back at it. Arms and legs, torsos and heads. All being launched and dodged in an invisible melange of blood and sweat. The Prince made another hit on the tiring boy, slamming his white boot into the five year olds chest. It was a wonder that the brat had taken such a whirlwind of a beating, and was still thrashing about. The Prince didn't slow his pace after he landed the kick, but in fact increased it. He was on the attack, and the kid was clearly on the retreat.

That's why the kid was able to graze the Prince's shoulder with his knuckles – barely disturbing the saiyan's crumbling armour – but making contact none the less. In all his offensiveness, Vegeta had forgotten to revert to his defensive pose.

"You little Brat!" Vegeta's voice echoed through the wasteland as he quickly phased in behind the spawn. The Prince brought his strong hands together and intertwined his fingers. In one smashing motion he whipped his arms overhead, and then brought them crashing down onto the crown of the kid's head.

The spawn unconsciously rocketed towards the ground, and the Prince shot after him. The Prince watched as the boy landed underneath him with a thud, his limp body rebounding into the air, and suddenly he was stuck with an idea.

The saiyan hurled himself at the boy, headfirst. Right before he hit the ground, Vegeta tucked his chin, and slammed the top of his head into the boy's stomach.

The brat coughed up blood and bile, splattering some on Vegeta's perfect hair, forcing the Prince to immediately hop off the boy in disgust. The Prince floated and landed a mere meter from the boy and prepared to administer the final blow. He raised both his hands and pointed them at the pesky child, drawing on all his remaining energy to assemble a final attack. But before he could launch his death-dealing blast, the puny kid did a backwards summersault away from him and sprung to his feet. The Prince shot into the air and simultaneously took the opportunity to shoot a simple Ki blast right at the brat who was retreating to a plateau of rocks.

"Man." He heard the brat spatter out in frustration as he dodged the unexpected attack. Vegeta watched as the boy seemed to ceremonially cross his wrists and spread his fingers. Concluding by raising his arms high above his head.

"MASENKO" The high pitched voice squeaked from afar, quickly snapping down his arms as he aimed his attack on the saiyan Prince. "– HA!"

"Hn." Vegeta smirked to himself as the Kamehameha wave shot up at him, growing eerily close. Though the child was a pain in the ass and he wanted nothing more than to tear him limb from limb, the fight was surprisingly exhilarating. "This is better than I expected."

Right as the wave was but a few feet from colliding with the Prince, Vegeta – at a breakneck pace – phased out and flew to another location in the air.

"One more!" He heard the boy shout right as he came to a halt in his new position. Vegeta watched as the wave came at him, and quickly dodge it as well. Again as soon he found a relatively safe spot to stop, the brat fired another wave straight for him. The two continued one, Gohan launching wave after wave, and Vegeta dodge each one with ease and grace. He would wear the boy down. Vegeta smirked at the thought as he dodged another beam. The boy was immensely impressive for one so young, but the kid's anger would be his own demise.

Finally, as the Prince predicted, the bombardment began to slow down and come to a halt. The kid's laboured breathing echoing off the piles of debris. Vegeta took the opportunity to fly through the clear skies and land by the boy.

"I've got to hand it too you, your strength is surprising." Vegeta evilly compliment the kid, throughly impressed with their battle. He observed the child who was crouched defensively across from him. The brat would have indeed made a great disciple if he could be broken. Vegeta chuckled, certain he could break the emotional brat. "Yes you spiced things up a bit, you should be proud."

Although the spawn would make a fine saiyan warrior, this was beginning to become foolish and an insult to his own capabilities. Would the boy not just die? In a moment of frustration, the powerful saiyan began to release all the ki he had accumulated in a massive bombardment of small ki balls, hoping one of them would hit the brat who was on his feet and running backwards from the astroid belt of ki blasts. To Vegeta's disgust, the boy was running backwards in a hasty attempt to get away.

"All cowards worth a thousand points!" The Prince yelled, more so to amuse himself, at the pathetically retreating kid. Vegeta continued his onslaught of attacks. He held no regard for the surroundings and was blasting everything within his sight into oblivion. He alternated pulsing the waves through his outstretched hands, skipping from right to left and back again. The boy would not be able to dodge this fury.

"AHHH" The beautiful sound of the brat screaming graced his waiting ears. Vegeta instantaneously stopped his march of ki to locate the kid amongst the rubble. It took him not more than a moment to see the small purple blur in the distance. The form of the brat went hurtling into one of the few remaining pillars of stone in the barren desert, causing the structure to come collapsing down. Vegeta almost let out a laugh as the boulders came raining down on the child.

That laugh was forced back down his throat when he saw the jagged rocks weren't the only things moving. The boy was still alive. The Prince clenched his gloved hands and spat in repulsion. Why was it so impossible for this brat to meet his fate?

The prince began a mighty charge at the boy, shouting out the promise of the kid's doom. "Alright you little rodent, I'm going to teach you a lesson once and for all that you'll never forget!"

"KRILLIN COMMON' WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, JUST THROW THE DARN THING WHY DONCHA?!"

A voice shouted through the desert plains causing the Prince to come to a rough halt as he dug his boot into the dusty ground. Vegeta rooted himself on the spot and whipped his head around to find the source. But when he turned around he was faced with a sight he most certainly didn't want to behold.

Prince Vegeta's harsh, onyx eyes widened in terror as the bright, blue ki ball – the spirit bomb – came speedily towards him. The massive energy could possibly be enough to destroy him. The prince seethed with hate, where had this energy come from? Was this some trick?

The blistering blast grew closer, and that's when the prince realized...

"THAT THING'S FOR REAL!"

And at the last moment, he hopped in the air, allowing the orb to pass right between his out-stretched legs. The Prince continued to fly upwards. When he didn't immediately here the orb make impact, he whirled around...

And was yet again face to face with the spirit bomb.

This time, it was too late.

"ARGHHHHHHHHH"

The light was the last thing he could remember before his world went dark.

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"He looks... I guess that blast did him in..."

Words were flowing into the Prince's ear, but they were broken. He was indeed alive – but how alive?

He drew in a breath of the oxygen rich air of earth, welcoming it's excessiveness. Vegeta let the beautiful mixture of chemicals fill his lungs savouring each inhale. He relished the feeling as his senses began to re-ignite, more vivid than before. His body had changed... for the better. By being so close to death, he knew he had become stronger. Vegeta could feel the power coursing through his veins and thanked the gods for the gift of Zenkai.

"Now earth won't have to look at his ugly face anymore."

The Prince snapped his good eye open and found himself face to face with the cowardly baldy.

"Whose face is ugly." He rasped out viciously, giving the weakling a look that promised nothing but an agonizing death.

Screams of shock echoed through the wasteland, causing the wicked prince much pleasure. They were scared of him - as they should be.

"I have to give you earthlings credit." The prince said as he sat up resting his palm on his knee for support, heaving from the effort. His maximum power may have increased but he was still injured. "But it's really too bad your very best still isn't good enough."

As Vegeta slowly rose to his feet, the miniscule man before him took slow steps backwards, eyes wide with terror. Vegeta couldn't wait to eliminate the pathetic bald earthling. If their was anything the Prince could not stand, it was cowardice. "It's going to be my greatest pleasure whipping you and your worthless friends off the face of this planet."

The saiyan took one step forward and with a quick swiping motion, knocked the baldy out with a karate chop to a sensitive pressure point on the neck.

"When I am finished with you weaklings here I will be free to begin my destruction of all the earth." Vegeta chuckled as the cue-ball's body flew through the air and came to a bouncing halt on the rocky ground. The Prince then set his sights on the Kakarot and his spawn. The two saiyan traitors.

Prince Vegeta struggled for breath with ever step he took, his physical injuries wearing down on him. His sculpted body was bruise and beaten and his armour was torn and crumbling. But he was more alive than he had ever been before. And he was going to win.

"Now then." He locked his one good onyx eye onto the brat, making sure to flood his gaze with pure hatred, as he planted his feet into the earth. The Prince majestically brought his arms in an x-shape over his chest, harnessing all his newly discovered ki into his core. He would unleash one last massive attack. Prince Vegeta took one last rejuvenating breath.

And then he shot out his ki, which erupted in a catastrophic attack. All of the loose rocks blasted into the air as Prince Vegeta forced the energy outwards in all directions. The skies turned a deep menacing purple as the evil ki poisoned their horizons. The last of the sturdy rock pillars were turned to nothing more than piles of dust.

Vegeta held the attack for several minutes wanting to annihilate everything in his proximity. It was only when continuing to unleash the blast began to weigh direly on himself did he stop the rampage. Debris from the desert floated to the ground, and the skies began to revert to their beautiful blue. The Prince found himself stranded on an island, surrounded by a giant crater created from his strength. He relished in the glory of his new potential, but the extent of his injuries caused him to sink into his squat and breath heavily just to inhale enough air.

"Was that enough for ya? You want some more?" He yelled out in an exhausted, daring tone. Smoke from the explosions simmered up from where small fires we still ignited and the dusty still polluted the air, but for the most part, Vegeta's vision was unobstructed. The Prince narrowed his eyes in search for any sign of the pests that had made this journey so much more difficult than it should have been.

"Ok kid, let's see what you've got." Vegeta spat out between heavy breaths. It took all of the Prince's concentration to muster up the energy he needed to fly to the boy. He smirked as he saw the unconscious form lying face down on a boulder, actually quite impressed the boy was still alive. "No more running this time."

With relief the Prince lowered himself down to stand right by the kid's head. Vegeta observed the boy, wanting to be certain he was not about to pounce. The child looked beaten, his gi was torn and blood flowed from many potentially fatal wounds, but his tail was still intact...

"ERRRR HIS TAIL GREW BACK!" Vegeta lashed out in frustration grabbing hold of the kid's appendage. He growled lowly as he stared enviously at the brown length of fur, almost able to feel where his own tail should be laying on his own waist. His envy then transformed into horror and the prince turned to look into the sky to confirm his fears. The power ball was still floating above the earth. Sweat began to drip down the sides of his face. The brat could definitely be a really nuisance.

"Best take care of him now before he gets the chance." Vegeta seethed and he raised the palm of his right hand sky wards, drawing up a small crackling ki disk. The strength it took for him to muster the disk was staggering, but not unpredicted in his injured state. Vegeta had to scream to overcome the pain of his depleted energy. The Ki in his hand was almost formed when...

A noise caught his attention from beyond the rock-hill to his left. Vegeta's eyes widened in rage – the concealed man who cut off his tail.

In a swift motion, fuelled by vengeance, Vegeta fluidly launched the disk at the rock, at the man who had torn off his saiyan heritage. A gleeful smile slapping itself on his face as he heard the yells of a man followed by a mix of body parts and rock blasting high into the sky.

Vegeta turned his attention back to the long haired boy. Luck seemed to be on the kid's side.

Luck and power.

Vegeta took a moment to contemplate the situation as he stared down through his good eye at the nuisance of a child. The Prince was weak and had no idea where to even start looking for the wretched orbs he had come all this way for. But Maybe the spawn knew where the damned dragon balls were. And if the spawn didn't, the Prince could simply destroy the child later. Or if he took the brat along, the boy could prove useful, especially with the defeat of Frieza. He was still young, by his teen years the brat would forget all of this. Yes the kid had a powerful body, and his mind was still very much a mold to be tampered with. Besides, was he himself not about the same age when Frieza took him into his service? Maybe Raditz had a point when he came in search of his powerful nephew.

Vegeta chuckled as he glared at the feisty brat. The boy deserved to die a torturous death for the grief he had given him today. The Prince though, was tired and the boy did have potential. Besides should he prove to be an issue he could always be exterminated later, need be.

The Prince tightened his grip maliciously on the child's furry, brown tail as he contemplated what to do.

And then, in one furious swipe, Vegeta viciously ripped it out.


End file.
